Customer Surveys

Kinēsis’ suite of customizable data collection and analytical services are designed to help clients maximize return on the customer experience by understanding the relationship between customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and profits.

Research has determined that customer loyalty is the business attribute that correlates most closely with profitability.

Customer loyalty lowers sales and acquisition costs per customer by amortizing these costs across a longer lifetime, leading to extraordinary financial results. Depending on the industry, a 5-percent increase in customer loyalty can translate into a 25-to-85-percent increase in profits.

Possible Research Purposes

Kinēsis’ offers a customizable suite of data collection and analytical services, to help our clients achieve any of the following research purposes:

Customer Satisfaction: Measure customer satisfaction, determine key drivers, and examine the relationship among various service elements and overall satisfaction.

Image/Awareness: Determine the relative image, positioning and awareness of the company and its products/services.

Customer Retention: Listen to lost or former customers to identify sources of run-off or churn, and thus improve customer retention.

Customer Acquisition: Determine the reasons behind new customers' selection, which provides valuable insight into new customer identification and acquisition.

Possible Research Objectives

Unlike research services that provide you with data and no way to use it, Kinesis delivers customized information that can inform and guide your sales or service operation.

This guidance is the result of a process that begins with questions. If you are like most Kinēsis clients, you need immediate answers to challenging market research questions. The table below lists just some of the questions our clients ask themselves and the solutions we provide. How many questions relate to your sales/service operation?

When Our Clients Want to Know…

Kinesis Helps Them…

Generally speaking, how satisfied are our customers?

Determine the level of customer satisfaction and provide a reference point for other satisfaction-based analysis.

Which key factors drive satisfaction among our customers?

Identify which service attributes drive satisfaction and which investments yield the greatest improvement in customer satisfaction.

How can we identify causes of customer dissatisfaction?

Identify moments of truth where the danger of customer attrition is highest.

How can we measure customer satisfaction over time?

Track changes in customer satisfaction over time.

Determine if changes in satisfaction are significant.

Which business processes can most improve customer satisfaction and increase our financial returns?

Link key service attributes to specific business processes.

Identify which processes maximize ROI.

How can we measure the relationships between customer satisfaction, profitability and purchase or retention behavior?

Identify the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer behaviors such as retention, purchase behavior, and likelihood of referral, which drive profitability.

Determine the relationship between customer satisfaction and purchase behavior.

Identify the ROI of satisfaction-based management.

Make a financial case to all stakeholders (management, employees and shareholders) that the customer experience impacts financial performance.

How can we identify changes in our customers’ purchasing or referral behaviors over time?

Continue to track the relationship between satisfaction and purchase behavior.

Analyze satisfaction by customer segments and the financial value of each individual segment.

You probably noticed that each question is answered, not by data, but by a business process which can be improved. We work with you to identify research objectives most important to your company. Then, we use our extensive technical resources, proprietary analytical methods, and years of consulting experience to help you identify the service strategies most likely to meet those objectives. Finally, we report the information that can help you develop and reinforce the service strategies that maximize your organization’s revenue potential.

Data Collection Methods

A variety of data collection methods are available, the selection of which depends on the specifics of the program. Among the most common data collection methods are:

Telephone interviews: Experienced interviewers call the customers to conduct the survey. We can use your list of customer names, phone numbers, and other appropriate information or use non-customer phone numbers purchased from a professional information provider.

Web-based surveys by e-mail invitation: We conduct this type of survey by sending respondents e-mail invitations that include embedded links that direct them to an Internet survey. We can use your list of customer names, e-mail addresses and other appropriate information or use non-customer contact information purchased from a professional information provider.

Web intercept popup surveys: Designed for online retail services, this survey randomly selects respondents who enter your Web site and presents them with online surveys. (We work with you to determine the most appropriate means of selecting respondents.) Your organization programs your Web site to launch a popup window, which directs respondents to the Kinēsis survey URL.

Mail surveys: Surveys are sent to respondents and returned by US mail. We use your list of customer names, addresses, and other appropriate information as well as your letterhead and envelopes to conduct the survey. We print survey forms and cover letters, merge, sort, and mail the surveys with a Kinesis postage-prepaid envelope.

Interactive voice response (IVR) surveys: Interactive voice response (IVR) surveys invite customers randomly chosen at the point of sale to call a toll-free telephone number and respond to an automated survey. Customers indicate their responses by following preprogrammed prompts on the telephone.

Questionnaire Design

Research without a call to action may be informative, but not very useful. Kinēsis builds call to action elements into our research design, which provide a road map for clients to maximize the ROI on customer experience measurement. Kinēsis works jointly with clients to design a questionnaire that will anticipate the analysis and produce actionable results – results you can act upon to make meaningful improvements in your customer experience.

Analysis

Generally, Kinēsis designs survey instruments that support Key Driver Analysis, where we identify the service attributes which are key drivers of desired outcomes – typically loyalty and engagement.

Loyalty

Measuring customer loyalty in the context of a survey is difficult. Surveys best measure attitudes and perceptions. Loyalty is a behavior based on decisions customers make continually through the lifecycle of their relationship with the bank. Customer experience researchers therefore need to find a proxy measurement to determine loyalty.

Kinēsis uses two measurements to gauge customer loyalty: likelihood of referral and customer advocacy. Likelihood of referral captures a measurement of the customer’s likelihood to refer the brand to friend, relative or colleague. It stands to reason, if one is going to refer others to the brand, they will remain loyal as well. Because customers who are promoters of a brand are putting their reputational risk on the line, this willingness to do so is founded on a feeling of loyalty and trust. This concept of trust is perhaps more evident in the second measurement: customer advocacy. Customer advocacy is captured by measuring agreement with the following statement: “This provider cares about me, not just the bottom line.” Customers who agree with this statement trust the brand to do right by them, and not subjugate their best interests to profits. Customers who trust a brand to do the right thing are more likely to remain loyal.

Engagement

Customer engagement is the extent to which the customer engages with the brand for their needs. Engagement is determined through survey measurements of primary provider or wallet share.

Loyalty-Engagement Segmentation

The final step in the analysis is to determine what service attributes have the highest potential for ROI in terms of driving loyalty and engagement. This is achieved by comparing the relationship of each service attribute to loyalty and engagement.

Mapping this comparison in a quadrant chart like the one above provides a means for identifying service attributes, which will yield the highest potential for ROI in terms of driving both loyalty and engagement; providing our clients a road map to both identify and make investment in the service attributes that matter – those which drive loyalty and engagement.

Research has determined the business attribute with the highest correlation to profitability is customer loyalty. Customer loyalty lowers sales and acquisition costs per customer by amortizing these costs across a longer lifetime – leading to some extraordinary financial results. Depending on the industry, a small increase in customer loyalty (5%) translates into a 25% - 85% increase in profits.